Article V, Section 22 of the Texas Constitution

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This section was repealed November 5, 1985.

Editor Comments

As adopted in 1876, the section read: "The Legislature shall have power, by local or general law, to increase, diminish or change the civil and criminal jurisdiction of county courts; and in cases of any such change of jurisdiction the Legislature shall also conform the jurisdiction of the other courts to such change." The former section was never amended before its repeal.

Note that Article V, Section 16, as amended in 1985 by the same ballot proposition that repealed this section, provides: "The County Court has jurisdiction as provided by law."

Attorney Steve Smith

Recent Decisions

None.

Historic Decisions

  • Chappell v. State, 219 S.W.2d 88, 88-89 (Tex.Crim.App. 1949) ("By Chap. 271, Acts Regular Session of the 50th Legislature, in 1947, and appearing as Art. 1970–333, Vernon's Annotated Civil Statutes, the civil and criminal jurisdiction of the County Court of Hill County was conferred upon the District Court of Hill County. . . . By Art. 5, Sec. 22, of the Constitution of this State, the legislature is empowered to do the thing attempted in the Act: that is, to confer the civil and criminal jurisdiction of county courts upon the district courts. Published notice of intent to pass legislation is required only for local or special laws. If the Act is a general law it is not within the constitutional limitation mentioned.")
  • Hickman v. State, 183 S.W. 1180, 1182 (Tex.Crim.App. 1916) ("The Constitution, in section 22 of article 5, gives the Legislature the authority and power to confer jurisdiction on the county court to entertain appeals from the corporation court, and by section 16 of the act of 1899 the Legislature gave the right of appeal in all cases tried in the corporation court. Section 16 of the act of 1899 provides for an appeal . . . . It may be contended that a violation of a city ordinance is 'not a criminal offense,' but section 2 of the act of 1899 so specifically defines it, and it must be so held as applicable to our Code of Procedure in passing on what are criminal cases within the meaning of the words therein used.")
  • Gulf, W. T. & P. Ry. Co. v. Fromme, 84 S.W. 1054, 1056 (Tex. 1905) ("Section 22 of article 5 of the Constitution is in these words: 'The Legislature shall have power, by local or general law, to increase, diminish or change the civil and criminal jurisdiction of county courts; and in cases of any such change of jurisdiction the Legislature . . . .' Under the authority of this section, the Legislature had the power to increase the jurisdiction of the county court by giving to it jurisdiction over the subjects of litigation embraced in the jurisdiction of the justice courts, and also to regulate the right of appeal from the county court to the Court of Civil Appeals, thereby conforming the jurisdiction of the two courts.")
  • Erwin v. Blanks, 60 Tex. 583, 586 (1884) ("We do not think that the twenty-second section of the fifth article of the constitution intended that the mere statutory grant to the county courts of a power beyond that which they were authorized under the constitution to exercise was to be construed as a lawful increase of the jurisdiction of such courts. If so, no matter what jurisdiction . . . . It was doubtless intended that the jurisdiction should be prescribed for the county court, and provision should be made at the same time giving to the district court the power which had been withdrawn from the county courts, or depriving the district court of those which had been conferred upon the latter.")
  • State v. Moore, 57 Tex. 307, 315 (1882) ("That the constitution might empower the legislature to withdraw power from the hands in which the constitution placed it, and to confer the same upon an another officer or tribunal, cannot be questioned; but to enable the legislature to do so, the power must be given in express terms . . . . Such a power is found in article 5, section 22, of the constitution, which provides that 'The legislature shall have power, by local or general law, to increase, diminish or change the civil and criminal jurisdiction of county courts; and in cases of any such change of jurisdiction, the legislature shall also conform the jurisdiction of the other courts to such change.'")

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